Blues to contact FA after Barca clash

Chelsea will wait until after their European tie with Barcelona before they compose a letter to the Football Association concerning the events following a serious injury to goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Jose Mourinho’s Premiership champions are still unhappy about the challenges which injured goalkeepers Cech and Carlo Cudicini, especially Stephen Hunt’s on Cech in the first minute. They are also concerned about length of time it took to get an ambulance to Cech and the route he was forced to take from the dressing room to the emergency vehicle.

A club statement read: “Chelsea Football Club will be submitting a letter to the Football Association over the next few days regarding a number of issues that arose from the match at Reading last Saturday.”

The statement continued: “We can confirm that questions regarding the two tackles on Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini, and the medical procedures to treat the injuries sustained by our players, will be in the submission.

“We have not prejudged the outcome of this submission and Chelsea FC want to stress that we will be asking the FA to look into these issues. But we believe there are serious questions that warrant further investigation by the relevant authority.”

Mourinho claimed Chelsea waited 30 minutes for the ambulance to get to the right place and that his keeper had to leave his stretcher to get into a wheelchair so he could fit inside a lift.

The Blues manager said: “If my goalkeeper dies in that dressing room or in the process, it is something English football has to think about. I’d like somebody to tell me why my goalkeeper in this situation had to be for 30 minutes, in the dressing room, waiting for an ambulance.”

Reading vehemently dispute Mourinho’s claim that it took 30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

They also insist Chelsea were given the option to take Cech out of the ground on a stretcher, around the edge of the pitch, but they preferred to take him out in the lift, using a wheelchair.

A statement issued by Reading said there were “very serious factual inaccuracies” in Mourinho’s version of events.